


Before & After in Grand Mesa

by smarshtastic



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Blackwatch Era, Blackwatch Jesse McCree, Blackwatch Reaper | Gabriel Reyes, Blow Jobs, Camping, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Post-Fall of Overwatch, Suicidal Thoughts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-20
Updated: 2017-06-20
Packaged: 2018-11-16 07:20:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,150
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11249007
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smarshtastic/pseuds/smarshtastic
Summary: The campground is at the edge of the water, nestled between trees, quiet and secluded. It's still early enough in the summer that the park is not yet overrun by families and campers and small children wailing into the forest. Still, Gabe is standing at the edge of their campsite, arms folded over his chest, looking skeptical as he watches Jesse struggle with the tent.---In which Jesse takes Gabe camping, and later revisits their favorite spot.





	Before & After in Grand Mesa

**Author's Note:**

  * For [fabrega](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fabrega/gifts).



> Here's fic number five of seven from my vault of McReyes content. I'd like to think that Grand Mesa was a special place for Gabe and Jesse. 
> 
> Thanks to [fabrega](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fabrega/) for her fabulous feedback and commentary, and helpful fact checking of fire safety. 
> 
> You can find me on [tumblr](http://wictorwictor.tumblr.com/) and [twitter](https://twitter.com/smarshtastic)!

-= **BEFORE** =-

The base at Grand Mesa is quiet and relatively empty. For some reason, there hasn't been much to do lately, and the summer weather came early, so many agents took the rare opportunity to take some time off and take advantage of the reprieve before it's too late. 

Jesse doesn't have anywhere to go, doesn't have any family to go visit, so he stays behind at the base. It's his favorite of all the places he's been stationed during his time with Blackwatch, anyway. Even better: Gabe is here with him. 

Technically, they're both still working. But they can only fill so many hours going through paperwork, catching up, filling in requisition orders, taking stock of their supplies. By the time the first weekend of their quiet time rolls around, they don't have a lot to do. Free time usually means Jesse has time to come up with bad ideas - and this time is no exception. 

“We should take the weekend off,” Jesse says, tangled up in bed with Gabe. “See the sights.”

“Here?” Gabe asks doubtfully. 

“Yeah - why not? We never get to enjoy it,” Jesse says. He perks up, an idea suddenly coming to him. “We could go camping.”

“No,” Gabe says immediately. 

“Have you ever even been camping?” Jesse asks. 

“I've spent plenty of time sleeping in the dirt on missions. I don't need to do that in my spare time too,” Gabe says. Jesse rolls over and spreads out over Gabe’s chest, resting his chin on his hands on Gabe’s sternum. 

“This would be different,” Jesse says. 

“Yeah, I’d be choosing to be uncomfortable,” Gabe says. “Wouldn't you rather stay in bed all weekend?”

“We could do that while camping too,” Jesse points out. 

“It's not the same,” Gabe says, a slight whine creeping into his voice. Jesse grins, wiggling up to pepper kisses over his mouth and jaw. 

“Come on, please? I'll take good care of you. I'll make it worth your while,” Jesse promises between kisses. Gabe sighs underneath him. 

“This is a bad idea,” Gabe says, but Jesse can tell he's already breaking. He kisses him more firmly, twisting his fingers into his hair in the way he knows Gabe likes. Finally, Jesse feels the fight go out of his limbs. “Alright, alright.”

Delighted, Jesse presses kisses to his mouth, his jaw, his throat. 

“It’ll be great - just you wait.”

=-=-=

The campground is at the edge of the water, nestled between trees, quiet and secluded. It's still early enough in the summer that the park is not yet overrun by families and campers and small children wailing into the forest. Still, Gabe is standing at the edge of their campsite, arms folded over his chest, looking skeptical as he watches Jesse struggle with the tent. 

“We could have booked a hotel,” Gabe says. “Or even stayed at the base.”

Jesse wags a tent pole at Gabe. “No bad attitudes,” he says. “These things are always fiddly. Plus, we wouldn't get a view like this.”

Jesse gestures with the tent pole out towards the lake. Gabe follows the gesture with his eyes. Jesse knows he can't deny how beautiful it is out here; they've been all over the world several times over, but they've always had a soft spot for Grand Mesa. They comes back to this base as much as they can reasonably manage. It's become special to them in a number of ways - their first kiss was here. Gabe won't admit out loud that he's sentimental, but Jesse knows, treasures it. 

“It's pretty nice,” Gabe admits after a moment. Jesse smiles up at him. 

“C’mere and help me with this, would you?”

Gabe gets down to help and it goes much faster with the two of them working to bend the tent poles to their will. Jesse hammers the last stake into the ground and stands back, hands on his hips. 

“Home sweet home,” he says. Gabe is still eyeing the tent skeptically. Jesse catches the look. “Hey - don't make that face. I brought as many blankets as I could find. It's gonna be cozy.”

Gabe doesn't look particularly reassured, so Jesse drops the hammer back into his pack and pulls Gabe into his arms. He resists - just for a moment - then drops his head onto Jesse’s shoulder. Jesse presses a kiss to the top of his head. 

“I can't believe I let you talk me into this,” Gabe says, muffled into Jesse’s shirt. Jesse snorts into Gabe's hair. 

“Please, you were about as stubborn as a house of cards,” Jesse says. Gabe makes a face and picks up his head. Jesse is grinning. “This is gonna be nice, Gabe.”

“Only because you're here,” Gabe says, a little gruff, a little shy. Delighted, Jesse kisses him again. 

“Then no more complaining,” Jesse says. “Let's enjoy ourselves.”

They spend the rest of the afternoon putting finishing touches on their campsite and then trying their hand at fishing. Mostly, they're both useless at it; the line gets hopelessly tangled and, once they manage to get the line unknotted, the hook get caught in the tree line when Jesse casts over-enthusiastically. 

“The fish are probably laughing at us,” Jesse says, tugging on the end of his line to no avail. The branch shakes but the hook refused to come unstuck. 

“We aren't relying on your fishing skills for dinner, are we?” Gabe asks, watching the branch warily. 

“Very funny,” Jesse says. “I told you - I came prepared. This was just for fun.”

“So fun,” Gabe says dryly. 

“Hey -” Jesse turns to level a look at Gabe. The tree chooses that moment to relinquish its grip on the hook, sending it flying back at Jesse’s face. He presses his hand to his cheek. Gabe’s face falls. 

“You okay?”

“Ow,” Jesse says. He peels back his hand and carefully extracts the hook from his cheek. Gabe comes over to inspect, taking his face in both hands and tilting his head gently towards the sun. “It's nothing.”

“Should at least clean it,” Gabe says, with a click of his tongue. “Did you bring a -”

“How many times do I have to say I came prepared, Gabe?” Jesse says irritably. Gabe kisses Jesse’s pouty lips. Jesse scrunches his face up, but can't stay mad for long. “It's with the cooler. But don't look in the cooler!”

Gabe dutifully goes to retrieve the first aid kit while Jesse packs up the fishing equipment. Jesse tries not to sigh as he folds up the rod. He had a lot of thoughts about how this trip should go - he's read enough books and seen enough movies to have crafted the perfect vision of a camping trip, even if it was practically in their backyard. Jesse swipes at the trickle of blood on his cheek as Gabe waves the first aid kit at him. 

“Come here,” Gabe says. He makes Jesse sit down on a tree stump they've moved next to the campfire. Strong, gentle hands tilt Jesse’s face towards the waning light again. He winces a little as Gabe presses the alcohol pad to Jesse’s cheek. “At least you won’t need stitches.”

“It was just a little hook,” Jesse says. 

“Mm,” Gabe hums. He swaps the alcohol pad for a fresh square of gauze, holding it to Jesse’s cheek to dry it before he dabs a drop of antibacterial ointment over the cut. “There.”

“Am I all clear, Dr. Reyes?” Jesse asks. Gabe looks at him critically. 

“Not sure,” Gabe says. He pauses, then kisses Jesse sweetly. “Ah - there. All set.”

Jesse drags him back in for a kiss. “Cuddlesome bastard,” Jesse says against his lips. Gabe chuckles. 

“So what’s in the cooler?”

“Dinner,” Jesse says. “Why, you hungry?”

“Doctoring is hard work,” Gabe says. 

“Must be why Angela’s always drinking coffee,” Jesse gives him another kiss. “Here - there’s beer. I’ll get started.”

Gabe gets himself a beer and opens one for Jesse too, sitting on the tree stump while Jesse fusses with the fire. It’s the one thing that goes right; Jesse always had a bit of a knack for pyrotechnics. He gets the fire roaring and dinner cooking in a cast iron skillet he bought especially for this occasion. He sits on the ground between Gabe’s legs with his back against the stump. Gabe’s hand finds its way into Jesse’s hair. 

“Did you do this often?”

“Hm?”

“Go camping,” Gabe says. 

“Oh - no, not at all. Not  _ really _ ,” Jesse says. “You know, like you said, I’ve spent plenty of time sleeping in the dirt. This sounded like a lot more fun.”

“You did bring an unreasonable amount of blankets,” Gabe says. Jesse chuckles. 

“I brought stuff to make s’mores too,” he says, tilting his head back to look up at Gabe adoringly. Gabe’s smile goes warm and gooey too. 

“Well, it can’t be so bad,” Gabe says.

“Such confidence,” Jesse says. “Drink more beer - it’ll be great.”

Dinner turns out only slightly overcooked, the smokey flavor of the fire overpowering most of the flaws in Jesse’s campfire chili. They drink a six pack of beer between them and spend the last moments of daylight roasting marshmallows, feeding each other sticky bits of marshmallow and graham cracker and chocolate. It devolves into Jesse kissing chocolate off Gabe’s mouth, which is really just an excuse to kiss him a lot.  

“Mm - should - ah, Jesse - put out the fire -” Gabe murmurs between increasingly insistent kisses. 

“Uh huh -” Jesse says, but he doesn’t stop kissing along his mouth and jaw. Gabe doesn’t push him away, chuckling between marshmallow-flavored kisses. 

“We’re gonna start a forest fire,” Gabe protests. Jesse groans against his mouth. 

“Alright! Alright - get in the tent. I’ll take care of everything out here,” he says. Gabe drags him up for one last, lingering, deep kiss that takes Jesse’s breath away. 

“Hurry up.”

Gabe lets him go and Jesse wobbles on the spot, grinning. “Sir yes sir.”

Gabe ducks into the tent and Jesse watches him go, eyes watching his backside disappear between the flaps. The camp light goes on in the tent and Jesse can see Gabe’s shadow reach up and pull off his shirt. Jesse grins wider. He turns back to the remains of dinner and packages them up carefully before dousing the fire. After another bucket of water, Jesse peels back the tent flap to join Gabe. 

Jesse finds Gabe lounging back in the nest of blankets Jesse brought from the base, at least shirtless, but probably naked, judging from the jut of Gabe’s hips peeking out from under the blanket. He looks good in the camp light - practically smoldering. Jesse hurriedly kicks off his shoes and swarms up Gabe’s body to kiss him. Gabe pulls him up the rest of the way, plucking at Jesse’s shirt. 

“Get this off,” Gabe says against his mouth. Jesse pulls away long enough to do so, hurriedly dragging it up over his head so he can get skin to skin with Gabe. Gabe’s hands go for the waistband of Jesse’s jeans, unbuttoning then tugging the zipper down, pushing them open and down as best he can. He gets a hand down the back of Jesse’s jeans, slipping under the waistband of his underwear to squeeze his ass. Jesse squirms, a soft gasp escaping his lips. 

“Unf - Gabe,” he says, canting his hips into Gabe’s hands. 

“Camping sucks,” Gabe says against Jesse’s mouth. 

“Wha…?”

“Can’t have this out here,” Gabe says, squeezing Jesse again. His fingers knead into the meat of Jesse’s ass. Jesse blinks, then laughs breathily into Gabe’s mouth. 

“You can have whatever you want, darlin’,” Jesse says. “Just lie back and let me take care of you for once, huh?”

Gabe insists Jesse at least gets his pants all the way off first. Jesse peels back the blankets and settles between Gabe’s thighs so he can cover Gabe’s body in kisses. He takes it slow, finding each scar, dimple and freckle on Gabe’s skin in the lantern light, placing warm, deliberate kisses over every spot. Gabe watches him, heavy-lidded, from where he’s propped up on a pile of blankets. He tangles a hand in Jesse’s hair. 

“S’good, Jesse,” Gabe rumbles. Jesse kisses over his abs, peeking up at him, lips pressed to his skin. Gabe gives him a little nod. Jesse kisses down his stomach and takes the tip of his dick into his mouth. Gabe makes a pleased noise, low in his throat. Jesse takes Gabe’s rapidly hardening cock down his throat as best as he can. He doesn’t have much finesse, really, but he makes up for it with enthusiasm. He moans around Gabe, hands massaging the inside of Gabe’s thighs. The sloppy noises of Jesse’s lips fill the tent along with Gabe’s heavy breathing. He’s never one to make much noise, but the way his breath hitches, the soft, pleading way he says Jesse’s name as his toes curl in the blankets - it’s enough to get Jesse panting with him. 

Jesse can taste salty precome on the tip of his tongue. Gabe’s hand is tightening in his hair. Jesse doubles down, hollowing his cheeks and sucking hard, lifting his eyes to look at Gabe’s face. He watches Gabe’s mouth fall open, his throat working to keep the noises down. His cock twitches then pulses onto Jesse’s tongue. Jesse laps it up eagerly, licking Gabe clean with long sweeps of his tongue before he comes back up to kiss Gabe deeply. 

“Mm - well,” Gabe says, finally, when Jesse pulls away. “I guess camping isn’t so bad.”

Jesse chuckles. He pulls Gabe in close, arranging the blankets around them, and kisses his temple. 

“Told you.”

Gabe pokes his side, making Jesse squirm. 

“Don’t look so smug.”

“Me? Never.”

“You do,” Gabe says, turning his head to kiss the smile off his face. It doesn’t work, of course - Jesse just smiles wider, returning each kiss with one of his own. Gabe rolls and pins Jesse down in the nest of blankets. 

They don’t end up sleeping much. 

In the early morning, a mist hangs over the lake. The rising sun can’t yet dispel the chill that’s settled in along with the fog. From where he’s tending the fire, Jesse watches Gabe for a few moments: he’s sitting on the gravelly edge of the water, wrapped in a blanket. It’s quiet, calm. A few bird calls echo across the lake as the forest wakes up. Jesse pads over to Gabe, two mugs of coffee in hand. Gabe looks up when he approaches and lifts an arm, making room for Jesse under the blanket. Jesse tucks himself into Gabe’s side and passes him a mug of coffee. It’s pleasant here, tucked under Gabe’s arm, the smell of coffee mingling with the fresh air and smoke from the fire. He feels Gabe’s nose nuzzle into his temple and press a kiss against his hair there. 

“Thanks,” Gabe says, voice still rough with sleep. Jesse turns his head a little to look at him. 

“Guess you haven’t tasted the coffee yet,” Jesse jokes. Gabe rolls his eyes, pulling Jesse in closer. 

“I mean for making me come out here,” Gabe says. Jesse’s face softens. He sets his mug down on the shoreline and reaches up to pull Gabe in for a sweet kiss. 

“I’m glad you humored me,” Jesse says. 

“I think I needed it,” Gabe says. “Even though my back is killing me.”

Jesse snorts. Gabe kisses him, long and slow, lingering against his lips, holding Jesse close. He melts against Gabe, smiling, content, happy. 

 

 

-= **AFTER** =-

It’s still early in the season, so the wind coming off the water feels particularly sharp. Jesse closes his eyes as the chill settles in his bones. The cigarillo between his lips doesn’t do much to stave off the cold or soothe the ache in his chest. 

Jesse remembers the last time he was here almost as clearly as he remembers the first. Not much has changed in the intervening years: the lake is as pristine as ever, the trees are maybe slightly taller. It feels like a snapshot of a different time. 

This is the first time he’s been back here alone. 

It’s been years, now, since Overwatch fell and the Swiss headquarters exploded - longer still since Jesse left Blackwatch. Left Gabe. 

He thought, at the time, that Gabe might follow him. But he never did. 

Jesse’s tired - tired of running, tired of fighting, tired of  _ existing _ with no end in sight. When he left Blackwatch, he left his sense of purpose behind. He thought he could reinvent himself once he left but he never did figure it out on his own - and now it was too late to take it all back. 

Jesse tugs his serape closer around his body, remembering once sharing warmth under wool blankets. He thinks he can almost smell the smoke and coffee. He closes his eyes and breathes in. 

What is left for him to do? 

Jesse stubs out the end of his cigarillo in the remains of a fire pit, trying not to remember cooking over a fire right here, licking chocolate off his own lips and Gabe’s. He unholsters his gun, turning it over in his hands. Peacekeeper catches the weak sunlight, glinting back up at Jesse. It would be easy to put the revolver between his lips, taste cold metal and gun oil, pull the trigger and end it. He wants to, desperately. The coward’s way out, Jesse thinks, even though he’s pretty sure it’s fitting for him. Hasn’t he always chosen the coward’s way out? Who does he have left to disappoint?

Jesse kicks off his boots and lines them up neatly next to each other. He takes his serape off next, folding it carefully and setting it with his boots. He sets Peacekeeper down on the serape and his hat on top of it. Jesse pauses. He fishes the old, beat up comm out of his pocket and sets that down too. It’s never been much use anyway. He turns to the water. 

Gabe taught him to swim, once upon a time - but he never really cured him of the fear of water. Jesse wades into the lake. It’s freezing, but Jesse keeps walking, the water coming up to his waist. He pauses, feeling the cold like pin pricks in his skin until he can’t feel much of anything at all. It’s a relief to feel nothing. He wades further into the lake. 

Behind him, on the shore, his comm rings for the first time in years. 

Jesse knows that ring: it’s an emergency signal, meant for Overwatch agents. A recall. 

He stops, chest deep in the water, listening to the shrill ring echo across the lake. The right thing to do would be to answer the call. The selfish thing to do would be to keep walking. 

Immobilized, Jesse lets the comm keep ringing. 


End file.
